Arab League to convene on Wednesday to discuss Israeli onslaught on Gaza

CAIRO

The Arab League will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, according to a Palestinian diplomat.

“The meeting will discuss Israel's continued genocidal war, the discovery of mass graves in Gaza and a US veto against a Palestinian application for full UN membership,” Palestinian delegate to the Arab League Muhannad al-Aklouk said in statements.

According to Gaza’s civil defense agency, at least 283 bodies of people were found in a mass grave at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis after the Israeli army withdrew from the area after a 4-month ground offensive.

Last week, the US vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council for granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations.

Palestine called Wednesday’s meeting to discuss Israeli attacks in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,200 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 77,000 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in its 200th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul